The Color of Tea: Review and Giveaway

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."
~Eleanor Roosevelt

The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe is a novel about Grace Miller, who yearns for a child and opens up a French café in Macau, China, where she and her husband, Peter, live. The couple desperately wants to have a baby, and their marriage suffers tremendously as a result of their inability to have child. Grace also longs for her mother, with whom she shared an odd yet intense relationship.  Not-so-slowly and surely, Grace immerses herself in her work at the café, and creates a new life for herself, although she still yearns for a child.  As she bakes macarons and brews tea, she builds her business and makes some wonderful new friends at her café, Lillian's.

I completely adored this novel, which conjures up exotic locales, flavors, and foods, such as, of course, the macarons featured so prominently in the book (pictured on the book cover, above, and to the left, photo courtesy of Wikipedia). Il est délicieux!  The author writes beautifully about food--I could almost taste the fabulously flavored macarons.  Grace's new friends, especially Rilla, Gigi, and Marjory, are offbeat, resilient, and always interesting. They bond over coffee, tea, and macarons, and support each other in numerous ways, small and large, as good friends do.

Most importantly, The Color of Tea  is about following your dreams--following your bliss--even when you're not quite sure how to accomplish your goals. This is a lovely and tantalizing debut novel with inspiring messages about the value of friendship and about bringing your dreams to life.  The Color of Tea is an emotionally satisfying read with a great deal of appeal for women of all ages. It would be the perfect novel for a women's book club, as long as tea and macarons were served at meetings.

If this book also sounds like your cup of tea (sorry, couldn't resist!), then you're in luck.  Originally published in 2011 in Australia as The Colour of Tea, this book is now published in America by Scribner, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.. Scribner is generously offering a copy of The Color of Tea to one of my readers (U.S./Canada only). 

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment. 
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Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, September 3.  One lucky winner will be randomly selected and announced on Tuesday, September 4.  Good luck!


Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for sending me this book.  For more reviews, please visit the other stops on TLC's The Color of Tea book blog tour.